The expression often used by Mr. Herbert Spencer of the Survival of the Fittest is more accurate, and is sometimes equally convenient.1

ATTRIBUTION:

The Origin of Species. Chap. iii.

Note 1.This survival of the fittest which I have here sought to express in mechanical terms, is that which Mr. Darwin has called natural selection, or the preservation of favoured races in the struggle for life.Herbert Spencer: Principles of Biology. Indirect Equilibration. [back]